Michael Jackson's son Prince has inherited his skin condition vitiligo,
according to the star's sister La Toya.

Prince Michael JacksonPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Aislinn Laing and Nick Allen in Los Angeles

8:34AM GMT 17 Nov 2009

The condition, which affects skin pigmentation and the star blamed for the change in his complexion over the years, would confirm that Prince is Jackson's son.

Both dermatologist Arnold Klein and Oliver! star Mark Lester have claimed that they donated sperm samples and could be the 12-year-old's father.

Prince's mother, dermatology nurse Debbie Rowe, became close to Jackson while treating him for vitiligo, and the pair married in 1996.

"Vitiligo is on my father's side and Prince has it, too – on his arms and chest," the singer's sister La Toya Jackson said in an interview with new! magazine.

La Toya also confirmed that Prince, along with the singer's other two children Paris, 11, and Blanket, seven, have been seeing a psychiatrist to help them get over the loss of their father, who died in mysterious circumstances in June.

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"Paris' bedroom is covered with posters of her father, Prince doesn't want to speak about it and Blanket is just very sad – he cries," she said.

"They're working with a psychiatrist. You have to have someone to ask how you're feeling and go through the hurt with."

The interview followed another by Jackson's sister Janet in which she criticised the star's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, for the treatment of her brother before his death.

"He was the one that was administering," she said in an interview with ABC News.

Dr Murray was hired to treat Michael Jackson in the months before he died of a drug overdose on June 25. He is currently the focus of a police investigation into the singer's death.

Janet Jackson has remained mostly quiet about her brother's death. Breaking her silence, she said that not a day goes by when she does not think about her late sibling.

"It's been a tough year. You have your days where it's just, really, it's hard to believe. And a day doesn't go by that I don't think about him," she said.

"I was at my house in New York. You know, another day. Another morning. And I get a call. My assistant said 'Your brother's been taken to the hospital.'

"It just didn't ring true to me. It felt like a dream. It's still so difficult for me to believe. It's, you know, you have to accept what is. But it's hard. You have to move on with your life. You have to accept what is and I understand that."

Since June, Los Angeles County coroner officials have said the powerful anaesthetic propofol, which is used in surgery, and the sedative lorazepam, were the primary drugs responsible for Jackson's death.

Police have referred the case to prosecutors to determine if criminal charges should be filed.

A spokeswoman for Dr Murray, Miranda Sevcik, said he continues to maintain he neither prescribed nor administered anything to Jackson that should have killed him.